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Expanded Student Annotation Assignment Options in Canvas

by Sarah McDaniel | Jun 21, 2021 | Canvas , Canvas Features/Functions , How-tos , Pedagogy

With an updated release of Canvas that launched in mid-May, instructors now have access to an additional Assignment format on Canvas: Student Annotation Assignments . With the addition of Student Annotation Assignments to the suite of resources supported through Canvas, instructors can now make use of two distinct platforms for student annotation assignments and activities, which can be tailored to distinct instructional contexts and learning objectives.

In this post, we will explore two frameworks for student annotation and close-reading exercises – individual annotations, completed independently by students, and social or group annotations, which students generate collectively – and consider which digital annotation tools best suit each purpose. Additionally, we will provide an overview of the new Student Annotation Assignment format and a recommended workflow for designing assignments that make use of it.

I. Student Annotation Assignments on Canvas

Features of canvas annotation assignments.

As a new Assignment format native to the Canvas learning management system, Student Annotation Assignments enable instructors to design assignments that ask students to annotate text- and image-based documents using a variety of annotation features also available to instructors in SpeedGrader. When working with an Annotation Assignment, students have access to a highlighting tool (to select text), a rectangular area selection tool (to select an area of the document), a pin marker (to mark a point of focus at a specific location in the document), a freehand drawing tool, a text box tool, and a strikethrough tool.

In addition, when making use of any of these text selection or modification tools, students can type out marginal comments that describe or reflect on their annotation choices.

Once students have completed their annotations, they click the maroon “Submit Assignment” button to save their work and deliver their annotated version of the document to the instructor through Canvas.

Students are also able to download their annotations – an annotated copy of the document – through the annotation toolbar.

Pedagogical Context for Canvas Annotation Assignments: Individual Work

As the Student View perspective shown above indicates, Canvas Annotation Assignments are designed for independent use by individual students . In brief, students open such assignments as they would any other on Canvas, begin an assignment attempt (by clicking “Start Assignment”), and access an unannotated copy of the original document uploaded by the instructor to begin their annotations. Each student, in other words, accesses a fresh copy of the document and creates and submits annotations that are visible only to the instructor.

As a result, Canvas Annotation Assignments are not effectively suited to group annotation work , for the simple reason that annotations are generated and submitted on an individual rather than a collaborative basis. However, individual annotation exercises – performed individually by students and submitted to the instructor for assessment – have a wide variety of instructional uses across the disciplines and can be used to help students prepare for group annotation work.

In the language-learning classroom, for example, individual annotation exercises represent one streamlined way to assess students’ reading comprehension skills (asking students to make translations, highlight particular parts of speech or grammatical structures, paraphrase passages, and raise comprehension or discussion questions responsive to the text) while challenging students to develop their fluency as readers, writers, and speakers through tasks that work through layers of cognitive complexity.

Across humanities and social sciences classrooms, individual annotation exercises can enable instructors to gain insight into and assess their students’ use of interpretive strategies and modalities through targeted reading exercises that challenge students to generate observations about a text or document, develop an argument or thesis about it, and gather evidence to support that thesis from their initial observations – an activity that could either precede the drafting of an argumentative essay or serve as a standalone exercise to develop the scaffolding for an argumentative essay.

In a variety of STEM contexts, individual annotation exercises can challenge students to represent their thinking and their work clearly in response to problems and questions – that is, to elucidate and emphasize the process of their problem-solving in addition to the solutions, products, and outcomes they ultimately generate.

Creating Canvas Annotation Assignments: Workflow for Instructors

For instructors, creating Canvas Annotation Assignments is just as straightforward as creating any other Canvas Assignment:

• We recommend uploading to your Canvas site the file you wish students to annotate before creating your Annotation Assignment. You may do so by navigating to the Files tab and uploading files there. This helps prevent occasional hiccups in correctly linking the Canvas Assignment with the file.

Grading Student Annotation Assignments

After students have attempted and submitted this assignment, you can view, assess, and provide feedback for student work using SpeedGrader. In opening each student’s submission, you will be able to view all annotations, mark-up, and comments the student generated.

II. Hypothes.is Integration on Canvas

A second format for student annotation activities and assignments on Canvas is the social annotation platform Hypothes.is, available for instructor use through the Canvas – Hypothes.is integration. As a platform designed specifically to support the work of social annotation, Hypothes.is is ideally suited to collaborative, group-based exercises in reading and annotation.

Unlike with Canvas Annotation Assignments, Hypothes.is activities and assignments are visible by default to all members of a Canvas site; as students contribute annotations, these become visible to their colleagues, who are then able to respond to and comment on the observations and ideas that have been shared. Instructors at UChicago have found that Hypothes.is activities are a good way to promote students’ engagement with each other, to encourage discussions of close reading, and to make the reading process more transparent.

To access Hypothes.is activities in Canvas, students click on the name of the activity (under Modules or Assignments) and load a new tab that displays the document undergoing annotation. The Canvas – Hypothes.is integration makes use of a collapsible annotation applet that loads on the right-hand side of this tab.

An additional important difference between Canvas Annotation Assignments and Hypothes.is lies in the way that annotations are saved and the document formats that are supported. Canvas Annotation Assignments make use of an image-based overlay process, incorporating student highlights, comments, and other modifications onto approximated locations in the document. Hypothes.is, on the other hand, makes use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to tie annotations and highlights – the two annotation strategies available to students – to particular characters or strings of characters in the document. Accordingly, Canvas Annotation Assignments are compatible with a variety of file formats (.pdf, .docx, .png, .jpeg) and enable students to produce annotations on non-textual features of a document (such as images, diagrams, and interstitial space), while Hypothes.is can be used to annotate web pages and PDFs for annotation and does not support the annotation of non-textual features of a document. Annotations produced through Canvas Annotation Assignments can thus at times be less precise (not tied to specific characters) than those generated in Hypothes.is (which are highly portable across browsers and devices because they are tied to specific characters), while Canvas Annotation Assignments allow for the annotation of additional non-textual features.

Instructors at UChicago have found creative ways to respond to the affordances and limitations of each platform; for an in-depth exploration of faculty use of Hypothes.is and social annotation at UChicago, please see “ Social Annotation and the Pedagogy of Hypothes.is ” on the Academic Technology Solutions blog. For a comprehensive treatment of the technical specifications and steps required to implement Hypothes.is in Canvas, as well as effective practices for its use, please see “ Use the Hypothesis-Canvas Integration ” on the UChicago IT Knowledge Base.

If you have any questions about Canvas Annotation Assignments, Hypothes.is, digital annotation, or other topics in Canvas, Academic Technology Solutions can help. Set up a consultation with us , or drop by our Virtual Office Hours .

• How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas? (Canvas student guide)
• Student Annotation Submissions (Canvas instructor video)
• Use the Hypothesis-Canvas Integration
• Social Annotation and the Pedagogy of Hypothes.is

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Canvas - How can students annotate an assignment in Canvas?

Assignment Annotation set-up   |   Canvas App Annotation Only   |   Resources   |   Tips & Tricks

Assignment Annotation  

Start by creating an assignment . .

• Add a title , description  (there is no need to link the document as you'll add that later), and point value .  
• Once you get to the Submission Type, select Online Submission .

• After you select Student Annotation you will attach the file . You will have an option to attach from the Course Files, your personal files (My Files) or upload a document. 
• Finish setting up the assignment with the submission attempts , optional: plagiarism review, optional: peer review and availability/due dates. (Group assignments do not currently support student annotation assignments).

Instructor set-up for Canvas App Annotation only

Student view (images examples from Android device)

• After you log into the Canvas Student App, locate the course and the assignment to annotate. 

• Select the link and it will open the mark up view. 

• Canvas guide: How do I create and online assignment?
• Canvas guide:  How do I submit a PDF assignment with annotations in the Student app on my Android device?
• Canvas guide:  How do I submit a PDF assignment with annotations in the Student app on my iOS device? 

Tips & Tricks

• Make sure to verify your assignment has been submitted. 
• The Android and iOS steps to submit are very different, make sure you are using the right documentation for your device. 
• You can also save the annotation on your device and submit it through the submit assignment button ( Android guide ; iOS guide ). 
• For more Canvas Student app guides, check out the full list of Android guides and iOS guides.  

24/7/365 Canvas Support is available through the help icon in Canvas, by calling the phone support for  faculty, staff and students .

University Center for Teaching and Learning

Canvas update: student annotation submissions.

• May. 10, 2021
• Teaching Center Staff
• Canvas , Featured , News
• Introduction

Overview/How to Use

Limitations

Student directions, assignment ideas, new assignment type: student annotation submissions.

Canvas is getting a significant new feature with the May 2021 Feature Update (“Canvas Release”), going live on May 15. The new feature, called Student Annotation Submissions, is an entirely new online submission type for assignments. This new assignment allows the teacher to upload a file to Canvas that the student can then, without leaving Canvas, mark up using the built-in annotation tools (highlight, make comments, draw marks, etc.) as their submission.

As part of the roll-out of this new feature, we will be hosting two twenty-minute mini-webinars introducing and discussing the feature. The webinars are scheduled Friday, May 21 at 11 a.m. and Tuesday, May 25 at 1 p.m. Click on either date to be taken to the registration page. We will also record the webinar and post it for anyone to watch at a later date.

See the end of this page for some ideas for how you might use this feature. If you would like, you can go to the Canvas release notes page to see the details from the vendor.

• Create an assignment as usually would.
• For the assignment type, choose Online.
• Under online entry options, check student annotation.
• Choose an existing file (such as a PDF, Word document, or JPG), or upload a new one, that will be the template for the annotation assignment.
• Finish completing your assignment with the normal process.

Official step-by-step documentation from Instructure is not yet available.

• Annotation assignments use the same annotation tools available to teachers with SpeedGrader. While a variety of file types are supported, PDF or Word files will have the best compatibility. Here is a list of file types the DocViewer can preview.
• These assignments are not currently available for use with with peer assessment, but this is planned for the future.
• This type of assignment cannot be made a group assignment. (For these, consider using a full collaboration tool, like Office 365.)
• This is not a multi-user live collaborative document (like Office 365, Google Documents, etc.).
• Keep in mind that most students do not have a stylus for detail drawing, and drawing with a mouse is imprecise at best.
• All annotations exist as a layer in Canvas displayed over top the original; it is not actually editing the original document. You can export the annotations to a PDF file, where the annotations will exist on the PDF comment layer.

Official step-by-step documentation from Instructure is not yet available. However, since the assignment uses the same tools available to a teacher using SpeedGrader, you can share those directions with students until official documentation is ready.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how you might use this new tool in your course. Do note that many of these are possible to do in other ways (like using Office 365 collaboration documents). The tool in Canvas can make some of these quicker or easier, but, in some cases, it may be appropriate to continue to use the other tools. Feel free to contact the Educational Software Consulting team for help using the feature, or ask for a consultation with Teaching Support staff to discuss how these activities might help your students reach their learning objectives in your course.

• Have students analyze, critique, or respond to prompts (texts, images, or both).
• Train academic paper reading skills. Reading academic papers can be challenging to read and learn from without training. Upload a paper (either relevant to this course, or perhaps in a similar field, but not exactly related to this course) and ask the students to read it. Have them use the annotation tools to highlight passages they consider important, make margin notes for questions that remain or their thoughts at that moment of reading, or to make commentary about the structure, flow, and formatting of the paper.
• You can provide feedback on important information the student did not take notes on, extraneous highlighting, and other details.
• Ask for self-reflection and/or start a class discussion of errors in papers. Use a sample assignment submission like students might hand in and ask them to mark it up. Optionally, you can include a rubric in the template document for the students to fill in. This will allow you to have a discussion with them about the feedback that they find most important. This can also help them to review their own submissions before submitting.
• Post a “find errors and correct them” assignment. Especially useful for a language or coding course (but also can apply to others, like math or logic), create an assignment of statements or solutions that have errors in them, and ask students to mark up what the error is, and suggest corrections. Do keep in mind the limitations of annotations as small corrections; do not have problems that require a significant rework. “True or False, but, if false, make it true” assignments are a narrower sub-type of this activity.
• Ask students to label a diagram or image as their submission. The student can use point comment tools to label individual parts, or box comments for larger structures that cover an area. This is comparable to a “hot spot” question in some ways. This is only recommended for identifying parts of a diagram, image or document; other assignment types are better for rote whole image identification. This can be used not only for low-level identification (“label the parts of this building’s façade and attribute it to a period”), but also higher-level analysis (“discuss your interpretation of this x-ray”).
• Collect student feedback in a specific format, such as providing a form or template that you would like students to fill in for a “360 degree” peer evaluation after a group assignment, but you do not want students to need to download or upload files (and a survey is too much for what is needed).
• Fill out “lab notebook” or “observation notebook” documents in a course that does not make heavy use of them to utilize another tool specialized to that purpose.

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New Feature: Student Annotation assignments

Student annotation assignments.

This feature allows instructors to provide a file in the assignment workflow for students to annotate. Currently students must take additional steps or use third-party tools to annotate files.

https://vimeo.com/541889461

How to set up a Student Annotation assignment

• Create/edit an assignment. Set Online as the Submission Type .
• Check the box for Student Annotation then choose a file from the Available folders or Upload a new file.

How do students annotate a file?

Student annotation assignment limitations.

• Cannot be assigned to groups.
• Not supported on mobile devices. Use the File Uploads Submission Type and provide the file in the assignment description for students to download and annotate on a mobile device.
• DocViewer, the tool used for annotating, is currently not accessible for students using assistive technologies.

New Canvas Assignment Type: Student Annotation

Posted in Announcements

On the assignment creation page , instructors can select the option to create an online assignment and select the Student Annotation assignment type.

Instructors provide the file that should be annotated, and students use the annotation tools to complete the assignment. Completed annotation submissions are viewed in SpeedGrader with the student’s annotations shown for grading. 

• Student annotation assignments cannot be used for group assignments.
• Although annotations are supported in the Canvas Student app, this specific assignment type is not currently supported for mobile devices. If instructors want students to be able to annotate a document via the mobile app, they should also use the File Uploads submission type and provide the original file in the assignment description for students to download and annotate in the app.
• Peer reviews are supported for student annotation submissions. However, Anonymous Peer Reviews are not supported for student annotation assignments, as the names of students are not displayed anonymously in annotations.
• See the full Canvas Release Notes (2021-05-15) for more details.
• Learn about other recent Canvas changes and updates at Georgetown.

BITS AND PIECES

Canvas Student Annotation Submissions

Great news for teachers looking for a way to create annotated assignments. As of May 15, Canvas has a new annotated assignments option now available under online submission types.

What does this mean?

When creating a new assignment, the teacher can select “Online” and a new check box will be available for “Student Annotation.” Teachers will then access their course files, with the option to upload a file, which will then create a version for each student to annotate. This will now work with PDF documents! Yes, finally, an easy way to give our students PDF.

A copy of the document is created for each student and they will use DocViewer to complete the assignment with the available annotation tools (the same one you use to view your student’s work in Speedgrader). Since this is an online assignment type, teachers may also choose to include other submission types.

Some other notable features when using the student annotation option include:

• Peer reviews are supported (anonymous peer reviews are not)
• Student annotations will be viewable in Speedgrader
• Student annotations cannot be assigned for group assignments
• It is not supported in mobile devices, students will need to complete this from a computer or teachers should also include a downloadable version of the file for File Upload submission type.
• If a student views a previously submitted attempt, it will show the annotations in a read-only format and additional annotations are not allowed (students will need to resubmit in order to modify their annotations)

For more on Canvas, check out our past posts. Please contact your Ed Tech Lead or Ed Tech TOSA for additional support.

• Category: Canvas , Tool Bits
• Tag: annotation , Canvas

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This is such exciting news and your writeup is really helpful Stephanie!! As an LA teacher I am hype!

Thank you, Courtney!

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Hypothesis: Collaborative Annotation for Canvas LMS

Available for.

Available for : Instructors Students

Log in to Canvas to access Hypothesis

ABOUT HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis is a collaborative annotation tool integrated with Canvas that supports shared annotations within a course, discussion in response to annotations, and active reading of text. Instructors select Hypothesis as an external tool when setting up an assignment and can also choose to assign readings to groups. Students can then annotate course readings collaboratively, sharing comments, and replying to each other’s comments with text, links, images, and video. Hypothesis is also fully integrated with SpeedGrader for efficient review and grading of student annotations.

Resources for instructors

• We recommend selecting the Load In A New Tab option when setting up a Hypothesis assignment. This will allow for a better reading experience for students, especially those who magnify the contents of their screen for accessibility purposes.
• Set up Hypothesis readings through Canvas Modules
• Grade Hypothesis annotations in Canvas
• If you are using Canvas Files or Groups for any Hypothesis readings you will need to take additional steps before the assignment works in the new course.
• Hypothesis FAQs

Resources for students 

Consider sharing the following links in your Canvas course, or point students to this page

• Learn the basics of navigating and using Hypothesis
• Short screen casts show how to highlight, annotate, make page notes, and reply to others’ notes
• Jazz up your annotations with this deep dive into the editing interface
• Create stand-out annotations with these five best practices to make your annotations stand out

Hypothesis helps you to

• Provide a new way for students to discuss class readings
• Help students consider multiple viewpoints when reading
• Assist students in close and active reading of texts
• Encourage students to engage critically with readings

Hypothesis Support

Workshops & webinars, hypothesis 101.

If you’d like to learn more about Hypothesis and see a demo, register for an upcoming Hypothesis 101 webinar or watch a Hypothesis 101 recording .

Hypothesis Partner Workshops

Each quarter, Hypothesis offers a variety of (typically) 30min workshops led by their team . Are you looking for ways to help your students develop their close reading skills and increase their engagement with your course materials? Maybe you’re seeking a more collaborative approach to reading complex texts while building community? Get ideas you can bring back to your courses, students, and colleagues for how to use Hypothesis for social annotation.

Topics for this quarter:

• Activating annotation in Canvas
• Using multimedia & tags in annotations
• Using Hypothesis with small groups
• Creative ways to use social annotation in your course
• Show-and-tell participatory workshop

Liquid Margins

Hypothesis hosts a recurring web “show” featuring instructors and staff to talk about collaborative annotation, social learning, and other ways to make knowledge together.

Offered throughout the year

Previous workshop recordings

If you missed any of the Hypothesis partner workshops offered during autumn quarter, you can find recordings on the Hypothesis YouTube channel .

Vendor Help

• The Hypothesis Knowledge Base includes FAQs, tutorials, how-tos, and troubleshooting tips.
• Schedule a meeting with Hypothesis Customer Success Specialist Autumn Ottenad for instructional design advice or questions on how to best use Hypothesis in your course.
• Watch Liquid Margins , the Hypothesis web series, to learn more about how other instructors use collaborative annotations in their course.
• Email and phone

Using Leganto Reading Lists in Canvas

• Introduction
• Getting Started
• Send/Publish List
• Student Usage Reports
• PDF Annotations

PDF Annotations in Canvas Reading Lists

Canvas reading lists offer the ability to annotate PDF resources in two unique ways. The Social Reading option enables instructors and students to annotate the same PDF together to encourage class discussion and engagement. The Read and Respond assignment option allows students to individually annotate a PDF reading and submit it for a grade. Provided below are videos including brief overviews and instructions for using these features.

PDF Annotation Videos

• Social Reading
• Read and Respond Assignments

Troubleshooting Tips

• Canvas reading lists will work best in either Google Chrome or Firefox, which are the certified browsers for this feature. If students are experiencing issues with the PDF annotation features, try having them switch to either of these browsers to see if this resolves the issue.
• If issues still persist, try disabling any browser extensions such as ad-blockers, clearing cookies/cache, restarting your browser or restarting your device.
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• Implement Universal Design for Learning with Assignments

by Mohammad Ahmed | May 14, 2024 | Accessibility , How-tos , Instructional design , Services , Universal Design for Learning

This post is the second installment in a series on Universal Design for Learning. For more information, please see previous installments in this series .

When you are designing assignments to help your class practice new concepts, you can set up your students for success by implementing the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).  This involves creating tasks that provide multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement to accommodate the diverse needs and preferences of all learners. Providing multiple options for assignments involves offering students various ways to engage with the material, demonstrate their understanding, and express their learning.

When implementing UDL in your course, be sure to explain the rationale behind different assignment formats. This will make it clear to students that through engaging with various formats they get a variety of ways to practice their knowledge and can develop far stronger skills in order to achieve greater mastery. Also highlight the link between the different formats, for example, that all of these formats contribute to the main learning objectives of the course and that one format is not “easier” or “harder”. Lastly, provide them with necessary feedback to improve their learning irrespective of the format they choose. Below are some strategies you can use to designing assignments with UDL:

• Provide Clear Instructions: Clearly articulate the assignment objectives, expectations, and grading criteria. Consider providing written, spoken, and visual instructions to accommodate different learning preferences. A format-agnostic rubric will help to organize this, and we have resources available for you .
• Offer Multiple Options : Provide students with choices on how they can demonstrate their understanding of the material. This could include options such as written essays, oral presentations, multimedia projects, artistic creations, or hands-on demonstrations.
• Use Varied Formats : Present assignment materials in multiple formats to accommodate different learning styles. Offer readings in text, audio, and video formats, and provide visual aids such as diagrams, charts, and infographics to support comprehension. Allow students to choose the format in which they present their work. Options could include written reports, oral presentations, multimedia presentations (i.e. videos, audios), posters or infographics, or digital portfolios. Some tools that can support this such as Immersive Reader , Panopto Videos , and the OneButton Studio .
• Support Accessibility : Ensure that assignment materials are accessible to all students, including those with disabilities. Use accessible document formats , provide alternative text for images, and consider the needs of students who may require accommodations such as screen readers or captioning.
• Offer Feedback Options : Provide students with options for receiving feedback on their assignments, such as written comments, audio recordings, or face-to-face meetings. Speedgrader is a great resource for written and audio comments. Tailor feedback to individual student needs and preferences. Offer students options for receiving feedback on their assignments. Allow them to choose their preferred method of feedback, such as written comments, audio recordings, video feedback, or face-to-face meetings.
• Promote Reflection : Incorporate opportunities for students to reflect on their learning process and evaluate their own progress. Encourage metacognitive strategies such as goal setting, self-assessment, and reflection journals.

Each one of these strategies can become overwhelming, so start small. Don’t implement all of them at once; instead choose one strategy and implement it into 1 assignment or assessment. This is what Thomas Tobin calls the +1 method 1 : one activity that you already do plus one new, easy strategy. To read more about his strategy you can download his free pdf book UDL for FET Practitioners: Guidance for Implementing Universal Design for Learning .

Let’s take feedback options, for example. After using SpeedGrader to grade the students’ exams, many faculty and instructors typically offer some text feedback; however, you can easily implement a UDL strategy by also offering verbal feedback through the recorded audio button near the bottom of the feedback panel in SpeedGrader. You can make this a 1+1 goal for the next quarter, and as you become more proficient with this strategy you can slowly increase it to monthly and then weekly implementations.

By providing multiple options for UDL assignments, you can accommodate diverse learning styles, preferences, and abilities, and empower students to take ownership of their learning experiences.

Further Resources:

• Review Academic Technology Solutions’ full list of Teaching Tools .
• Learn About Universal Design for Learnin g from CAST.
• Explore the University of Chicago’s   Center for Digital Accessibility .
• Request an instructional design consultation with LDT instructional designers.
• Request digital media consultation and development services in support of teaching materials and the presentation of research.
• Request custom workshops for departments or programs who want to tailor the content to their instructors or subject area.
• Join us in office hours , virtual or hybrid, during which you can ask any questions you may have.
• Join our online workshops on various topics related to teaching with technology.

1 Tobin, T. J. (2021). UDL for FET Practitioners. SOLAS. April 15, 2024, https://www.ahead.ie/udlforfet-guidance .

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5/22: Upgraded Course Reserves (Leganto) Look & Feel

On May 22, the look and feel of our Course Reserves tool Leganto is getting an upgrade!

You won’t need to do anything to make the switch, and most of the improvements are visual.

Upgrades of note include:

• Clearer language surrounding library item processing
• Enhanced student view banner
• Simplified list duplication (previously “rollover”) workflow

And a few  features will no longer be supported  due to low usage.

More details will be coming soon, including new videos, written documentation , and workshop announcements from the Course Reserves team! In the meantime, please refer to the vendor’s new instructions on  Creating Lists in Leganto  or email  [email protected]  and  [email protected]  with any questions.

Last Updated: 16 May 2024

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Proposal: Annotate types in multiple assignment

In the latest version of Python (3.12.3), type annotation for single variable assignment is available:

However, in some scenarios like when we want to annotate the tuple of variables in return, the syntax of type annotation is invalid:

In this case, I propose two new syntaxes to support this feature:

• Annotate directly after each variable:
• Annotate the tuple of return:

In other programming languages, as I know, Julia and Rust support this feature in there approaches:

I’m pretty sure this has already been suggested. Did you go through the mailing list and searched for topics here? Without doing that, there’s nothing to discuss here. (Besides linking to them).

Secondly, try to not edit posts, but post a followup. Some people read these topics in mailing list mode and don’t see your edits.

• https://mail.python.org
• https://mail.python.org/archives

For reference, PEP 526 has a note about this in the “Rejected/Postponed Proposals” section:

Allow type annotations for tuple unpacking: This causes ambiguity: it’s not clear what this statement means: x, y: T Are x and y both of type T , or do we expect T to be a tuple type of two items that are distributed over x and y , or perhaps x has type Any and y has type T ? (The latter is what this would mean if this occurred in a function signature.) Rather than leave the (human) reader guessing, we forbid this, at least for now.

Personally I think the meaning of this is rather clear, especially when combined with an assignment, and I would like to see this.

Thank you for your valuable response, both regarding the discussion convention for Python development and the history of this feature.

I have found a related topic here: https://mail.python.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/5NZNHBDWK6EP67HSK4VNDTZNIVUOXMRS/

Here’s the part I find unconvincing:

Under what circumstances will fun() be hard to annotate, but a, b will be easy?

It’s better to annotate function arguments and return values, not variables. The preferred scenario is that fun() has a well-defined return type, and the type of a, b can be inferred (there is no reason to annotate it). This idea is presupposing there are cases where that’s difficult, but I’d like to see some examples where that applies.

Does this not work?

You don’t need from __future__ as of… 3.9, I think?

3.10 if you want A | B too: PEP 604 , although I’m not sure which version the OP is using and 3.9 hasn’t reached end of life yet.

We can’t always infer it, so annotating a variable is sometimes necessary or useful. But if the function’s return type is annotated then a, b = fun() allows type-checkers to infer the types of a and b . This stuff isn’t built in to Python and is evolving as typing changes, so what was inferred in the past might be better in the future.

So my question above was: are there any scenarios where annotating the function is difficult, but annotating the results would be easy? That seems like the motivating use case.

Would it be a solution to put it on the line above? And not allow assigning on the same line? Then it better mirrors function definitions.

It’s a long thread, so it might have been suggested already.

Actually, in cases where the called function differs from the user-defined function, we should declare the types when assignment unpacking.

Here is a simplified MWE:

NOTE: In PyTorch, the __call__ function is internally wrapped from forward .

Can’t you write this? That’s shorter than writing the type annotations.

This is the kind of example I was asking for, thanks. Is the problem that typing tools don’t trace the return type through the call because the wrapping isn’t in python?

I still suggest to read the thread you linked, like I’m doing right now.

The __call__ function is not the same as forward . There might be many other preprocessing and postprocessing steps involved inside it.

Yeah, quite a bit of pre-processing in fact… unless you don’t have hooks by the looks of it:

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